1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the treatment of a sample in a liquid medium, in particular an aqueous medium, to release and separate a predetermined fraction of interest in said sample. In particular, but solely by way of nonlimiting example, the invention relates to the treatment of a biological material, for example a cellular material, to release and separate a constituent or predetermined fraction, of subcellular or intracellular nature, of the sample that is treated, for example a nucleic or proteinic fraction. By way of introduction to the present invention, and in order to explain it, it will hereafter be described and defined with reference to the analysis, detection, concentration or separation of a nucleic fraction in a biological sample, for example a cellular material comprising said intended nucleic fraction, in order to identify it and/or quantify it.
2. Technical Background
The subject of the present invention is an assembly for treating a sample, said assembly being sterilizable and making it possible to avoid, on the one hand any contamination of the constituent or the predetermined fraction to be analyzed, due to the prior treatment of a different sample, and on the other hand any contamination by various external sources which may, in particular, subsequently vitiate the analysis.
As regards the treatment of nucleic fractions or constituents, an object of this type is particularly important, it being known in practice that many analyses of nucleic material are interfered with or vitiated, when using the same analysis equipment, on the one hand by remnants or residues of the sample treated beforehand, and on the other hand by the existence of nucleic "pollutants" in the immediate vicinity of the analysis equipment. The analysis of nucleic fractions or constituents consequently imposes constraints, in particular operation under particularly stringent conditions, in order to avoid any parasitic contamination of the constituent or fraction to be analyzed.